


Red In Tooth And Claw

by imaginary_golux



Series: October Ficlet Challenge [51]
Category: Little Red Riding Hood (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Dark Fairy Tale Elements, F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, Feral Behavior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 23:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12518916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: Prompt 26: Student/teacherLittle Red follows the Wolf into the forest. She doesn't come out again....That's fine by her.Prompt and beta by my Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.





	Red In Tooth And Claw

She leaves the red cloak in her grandmother’s cottage, for the villagers to find, leaves it pinned by the huntsman’s axe and stained with the huntsman’s blood. Let them think what they will, those who find it. She follows the wolf into the forest without looking back.

The Wolf teaches her to hunt, to relish the copper taste of blood, to chew the bones of rabbits and deer and lick away the marrow. He teaches her to walk silently in the woods, far from any path; to know the trees and underbrush as well as she knew her own house in the village. To understand from half-heard sounds and barely-present scents what animals have passed by her, and when, and why.

He never tells her what he is. Some days he walks on two legs, some days on four; his teeth are sharp and white and his tongue is very red. But he curls around her in the cave which is their den, and his fur is soft and warm, and she strokes his ears and feels no fear when he rests his long muzzle on her soft-skinned shoulder, so close to her tender throat.

He is dangerous, but so is she, now. If he has sharp white teeth, she has a gleaming dagger ready to her hand; if he is sleek and swift, so too is she becoming. She is changing, here in the forest, under the Wolf’s careful tutelage. She is stronger, faster, deadlier than she ever was before. She would not need to fear a huntsman now.

“You are full-grown,” the Wolf says, many moons after she walked into the forest on his heels, cloak left behind to tell whatever tale it could. “You may go out, if you like, to find your own territory, to make your own way and build your own den.”

“I will stay with you,” she says, smiling her wolf’s smile, all sharp white teeth and danger. “This is my territory, this is my den; and my way is at your side.”

“It is well,” says the Wolf. And it is.

**Author's Note:**

> So Best Beloved and I are doing an October ficlet challenge. We each generated a list of pairings we'd be willing to write and a list of prompts we wanted the other person to write, and then traded prompts lists without knowing what the other person's pairing lists were. We'll be doing a ficlet each every day in October. Should be fun!
> 
> I am, as ever, imaginarygolux on tumblr.


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